Amritsar: Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue to be installed at Malika Da Butt

Statues of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, Akali Phula Singh and Hari Singh Nalwa to be installed. The Malika Da Butt roundabout, close to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, will soon have a statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh – the famed Punjab ruler whose kingdom was annexed by the British soon after

Continue reading

Overflowing garbage marks the spot where the final blow was dealt to the Sikh Empire

The pavilion which contained one of the most famous gardens in Lahore is now in ruins. Sitting inside the baradari (pavilion), Maharaja Sher Singh and his son, Kanvar Pratab Singh, watched the Khalsa Army parade in front of them. Before him, his father, Maharaja Ranjit Singh too sometimes used to

Continue reading

Taxi driver’s £40 car boot find turns out to be £75,000 Sikh miniature

The gouache on paper that made £75,000 at Roseberys’ Islamic & Indian Arts sale. Bidders identified the subject as the walled old town of Amritsar with the Golden Temple or Harmandir Sahib, the holiest religious complex of the Sikh religion, in the background. Given a rudimentary catalogue description and estimated

Continue reading
charaina

Guru Gobind Singh’s armour recreated in 3D

Updated on 5th January 2017 Guru Gobind Singh’s armour recreated in 3D Taran3D has joined with the Sikh Museum Initiative (SMI) to recreate one of the plates from the body armour of Guru Gobind Singh. The body armour commonly known as Charaina or four mirrors has been patterned to bring out

Continue reading

Fading frescoes calls for a facelift

Time has taken a toll on the 19th century murals on the walls of Palkiana Sahib in Amritsar by Kanwarjit Singh Kang I first visited Palkiana Sahib in 1971. I was researching on mural paintings in 19th century Punjab and its walls — both of the inner shrine and the

Continue reading

Three things you didn’t know about the Kohinoor

No other gem has captured imaginations as the Koh-i-noor, the ‘mountain of light’, and it continues to make news even now, with the Supreme Court of India asking the government what its plans were, after a plea was entered to bring back the diamond from the UK, where it currently

Continue reading

Maharaja Ranjit Singhs statue to be installed in France in September

Modern miniature of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Chandigarh, Apr 6 (PTI) A statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh will be installed in Frances Saint-Tropez town, the birth place of his Army General Jean-Francois Allard, in September this year.Together with the installation of busts of General Allard and his wife Bannou Pan Dei.

Continue reading

BBC radio programme The Sikh Empire

The Sikh Empire: In Our Time Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of the Sikh Empire in the 18th Century under Ranjit Singh, who unified the Sikh kingdoms as the Mughal Empire declined. He became Maharaja of the Panjab at Lahore in 1801, capturing Amritsar the following year. His empire

Continue reading

The Sikh Empire – Treaty with a King

Portrait of Charles Theophilus Metcalfe By Pardeep Nagra The Sikh faith originated in the late 1400’s within a social and geo political and geo demographic region of one of the oldest civilizations in the Indus Valley. The Indus Valley Civilisation is also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, the first

Continue reading

Baba Baghel Singh: The conqueror of Delhi

Baba Baghel Singh Baba Baghel Singh (1730 – 1802) was born in village Jhabal, District Amritsar. From humble beginnings he arose to become a formidable force in the area between River Sutlej and River Yamuna. Karora Singh, head of the Karorsinghia Misl, was issue less and had adopted his personal

Continue reading